In 2007, Japan may be blessed with the lowest number of traffic-accident deaths in 54 years. In the first half of this year, 2,655 traffic deaths took place, a decrease of about 9 percent from the year before and the lowest figure on record since 1954. Through 2006, the number of annual deaths in traffic accidents has declined for six straight years. The number of traffic fatalities last year — 6,352 — fell to between 6,000 and 6,500 for the first time since 1955.
The downtrend has stirred expectations that the number of traffic fatalities this year will slip below 6,000 for the first time since 1953. Traffic accidents and people injured in such accidents in the first half this year decreased by 6.1 percent to 404,639, and by 5.8 percent to 501,396, respectively.
A tragic accident in Fukuoka in August 2007 led to a strengthening of measures against drunk driving. Three children died when the vehicle they were traveling in was rear-ended by a drunk driver and plunged off a bridge into Hakata Bay.